“The more difficult the conversations, the more necessary they are,” Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Sumitra Visvanathan shared this in a riveting speech at the 40th anniversary celebration of the non-profit, hailed as the country’s largest service for domestic violence survivors since it first opened its doors in the 1980s. “It’s so important for us to have those difficult conversations for meaningful change to happen,” she added, recounting WAO’s ongoing fight to end gender-based violence in Malaysia and emphasising the importance of mobilising communities and changing mindsets about inequality and domestic abuse in our society.
So when I first met WAO’s directors Charlene Murray, Abinaya Dhivya Mohan, Nazreen Nizam, and Amnani Abdul Kadir, I anticipated these difficult conversations. Making small talk on a subject as weighty as domestic abuse was not an option. I prepared for a sombre set of discussions decrying society’s lack of support for women’s rights.
Instead, I found an upbeat, energetic group of well-spoken ladies who lit up the room with their wit, warmth and
